


everything and nothing

by spheeris1



Category: Orange is the New Black
Genre: F/F, Gen, Love, Self-Acceptance, Self-Reflection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-21 13:43:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11358693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spheeris1/pseuds/spheeris1
Summary: drabble // Piper POV // Season 5 // set in the final episode // "Everything and nothing, in an agonizing, breathless second."





	everything and nothing

/ /

A long time ago, her father told her about hitting a patch of ice on the highway. He was young, somewhere between teenage bravado and adult misgivings, and friends were laughing one moment and then holding on tight the next. He said it was as if time slowed down, just like movies claim, and as the car spun out of control, so spun out the years of his life up to that point.

His life – short in comparison to so many other things, trivial and pivotal at the same time – flashed before his eyes.

Everything and nothing, in an agonizing, breathless second.

/ /

Alex's hand is warm, almost as if this is normal, but Piper can feel the subtle tremble underneath the surface. Or maybe that's just Piper's own earthquake, building up from the bones until her skin shows the terror. Alex's hand is warm, though, and that's something to hang onto; something so tangible, something so goddamn real.

And Piper has lost the ability to breathe more times than she can count – from her first day in Litchfield all the way to losing herself completely...

...oh, she's been on ice every single step of the way.

Stumbling. Sliding. Falling. Coming up when maybe she should have stayed down, carrying her bruises like she's proud, like it's all temporary... like she can somehow slip out of this life and into another, as long as she keeps on moving without looking... looking without seeing...

...oh, she's seen her existence flutter and fly past her gaze so many times.

But Alex's hand is warm against her own and Piper has finally found solid ground on which to stand and the door is being blown wide open above them and she doesn't hold her breath, she just holds onto Alex's hand, and she doesn't close her eyes, not this time around, and this is her life, isn't it?

In an empty pool. In prison. In love with the woman beside her.

In an agonizing, breathless second... everything and nothing...

...and Piper wouldn't trade this life for anything.

/ /

**(end)**

**Author's Note:**

> I don't write much anymore, but felt the urge and was listening to 'Chariot' by Beach House and this happened.


End file.
